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Outrunning her injuries

High Point grad Disanza overcomes setbacks to become track All-American at Wisconsin

Photo courtesy of University of Wisconsin — High Point Regional High School grad Sarah Disanza competes June 10 during the third day of the 2017 NCAA National Championships in Eugene, Ore.Walt Middleton Photography 2017Photographer

Like most college students nowadays, Sarah Disanza is always trying to build up her resume with great experiences and accomplishments in hopes of landing a future job in a profession she loves to do.

On June 10, the 21-year-old University of Wisconsin redshirt junior and former High Point High School star added an experience and an achievement that she had been wanting to do for a long time: become an All-American in outdoor track and field.

Disanza placed seventh in the women's 5,000-meter run at the NCAA Division I Championships at the legendary Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. The Wantage native crossed the finish line in a personal-best time of 15:48.51 to earn first-team All-America accolades and her third All-America honor in her college career after nabbing one in cross country and one in indoor track and field.

Disanza's latest All-American honor, though, comes after having a heck of a four-year roller-coaster ride during which she soared her way to the top of collegiate distance running as a true sophomore in 2014 and almost hit rock bottom in the spring of 2016 after suffering a series of injuries.

"This was a long time coming for me," Disanza said Wednesday in a telephone interview. "This was my first healthy year in a little while and an outdoor national championship was something I never got to experience before. I had been to cross country, I had been to indoors and did well in both, but I wanted to check outdoors off my list and was happy to do so."

After having a decorated career at High Point that included her winning the 2012 Meet of Champions in cross country and capturing a MOC title in the 3,200-meter run in track and field, Disanza got her college career off to an incredibly fast start.

In cross country as a freshman, she finished either first or second for the Badgers in every meet in which she competed while helping them qualify for the NCAA Championships as a team via an at-large bid after a second-place finish at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional. At the regional, Disanza placed 21st in the 6-kilometer race in 20:53, good for second on the team. At the NCAAs, she finished 104th overall in 21:20.5, which was also good for second on the team.

In indoor track, she won the 3,000-meter run at the Wisconsin Elite Invitational while competing unattached. In outdoor track, she took 27th in the 1,500 at the NCAA West Preliminary Round and fifth in that event at the Big Ten Championships.

Then as a sophomore in 2014, she became one of the best distance runners in the nation.

In cross country, she earned her NCAA runner-up finish by running a time of 19:39.9 on the 6-kilometer LaVern Gibson Championship Course in Terre Haute, Ind. As a result, she posted the highest finish ever by a Sussex County woman runner in the national meet, earned her first college All-American honor and became only the second woman from Sussex County to earn an All-American award along with former Kittatinny High School and Georgetown standout Christi Constantin.

In indoor track, she took third in the 5,000-meter run at the NCAA Championships to earn her second All-American honor of her college career. In addition, she broke the school's record, the Big Ten's record and the American Junior's record in the 5,000 by running a 15:20.57 to win the Boston University Opener. That time also came close to her qualifying for the U.S. Olympic Trials in that event, as the qualifying time was 15:20.

But after that indoor season in 2014-15, Disanza started to get a series of injuries that included stress fractures in her right foot, right fibula and left part of her sacrum plus inflammation in her right Achilles.

As a result, she had to use her red shirt for the outdoor track season in 2014-15 and the 2015 cross country season. She also did not compete during the 2015-16 indoor track season.

And for a woman with high hopes and goals, mainly becoming an NCAA champion, these injuries and the numerous days spent rehabbing them over and over again started to chip at her confidence.

But last fall, Disanza started to gain her confidence back in cross country season by helping the Badgers earn a 14th-place finish at the NCAA Championships and a third at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional. She had the best time on the team at the NCAAs and the second-fastest at the regional meet.

Then in the winter, Disanza had a solid indoor track season in which she ran to a fifth-place finish in the 5,000 at the Big Ten Championships. After that season, Disanza felt she was getting better, but she didn't feel as great as she hoped entering the outdoor campaign in the spring.

"I was still trying to gain some momentum," Disanza said. "I had been hurt the entire summer and did not run until September, so I didn't have much of a base to work off of. The indoor season showed that I was getting stronger, but I was still missing some key elements in my training."

But in the second week of the outdoor season, Disanza managed to put together one of her best runs of her career at the Stanford Invitational on March 31.

At that meet, she ran a 15:55.57 en route to a 10th-place finish in the 5,000. She had not competed in that distance event for outdoors since her freshman year. Her time was good for the seventh-best in Wisconsin history.

While Disanza was thrilled with the run, she said she had to "lay low, but maintain the training" for most of the season until the championship season. Then on May 14, Disanza placed third in the 5,000 at the Big Ten Championships with a time of 16:24.50.

Then on May 27, Disanza qualified for the NCAA Championships by placing fifth in 16:35.33 at the NCAA West Preliminary. Her fifth-place finish gave her an automatic bid to the NCAAs, which she was thrilled to have earned.

"It gave me a little more confidence going into nationals," Disanza said. "I was glad to get one of those and it made me feel that I should be running with those top dogs."

When she got to the NCAAs at Hayward Field, Disanza showed that she belonged with the best runners in the country.

Disanza raced from the back of the pack to get into 10th until the bell lap, where she wound up passing a pair of Oregon runners and one other to earn her seventh. In doing so, Disanza became the first Badger to earn first-team All-America honors in the outdoor 5,000 since Gwen Jorgensen placed seventh at the 2008 NCAA Outdoor Championships in Des Moines, Iowa.

Disanza's time of 15:48.51 also ranks fifth in program history as only Cathy Branta, Kathy Butler, Stephanie Herbst and Katie Ishmael have run faster than Disanza.

More importantly, Disanza's performance now has her thinking that she can add more hardware next year in her final cross country, indoor track and outdoor track seasons at Wisconsin.

"This was an important stepping-stone for me in trying to get back to the competitor that I was a couple of years ago," Disanza said. "This gives me the confidence that I am on the same level as the girls who I have been hearing about for the last couple of years while I had been down and out. Being recognized as an All-American is a great feeling and it gives me a better feel for what I can achieve and want to accomplish in my final year at school."

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